Unsuspecting Character

Friday January 28 2005 08:19 IST

By Karmayogi

Faith, trust, belief, conviction, doubt, disbelief, suspicion are the grades in which the human mind responds to a situation or a person. Especially when we are in an alien culture, we are keenly aware of the fact that we are trusted by neighbours more than we deserve.

In a trice, it is brought home to us that there are unsuspecting, good people which back at home, we are not. We trust or suspect others in the measure we are trustworthy. We do not suspect our guests left alone in the kitchen that they will steal food. It may be a surprise to us that there are such people.

Trustworthiness develops in a person depending on the affluence in which he was brought up. It varies with cultures. The Western youth seeks TRUTH. If only he is sure he can get it in remote mountain caves, he will not hesitate to reach there. In that pursuit, he will readily sacrifice anything.

Indian youth, who are paid low salaries here, seek better paid jobs in the West. Imagine Western youth coming to India to places like Auroville and opting to stay there forever, sacrificing their lucrative careers. In many religious and spiritual centres, we find youth behaving like that.

Someone expressed an admiration to such a mental attitude. One of the group, an auditor by profession, said, ‘‘That is what the suspicious Indian mind is questioning. What is their ulterior motive?'' He was not an active member of his profession. To influential politicians, he has become a handy tool, a kind of a tout. He was unable to appreciate a laudable quest in some unknown youth, and instead suspected it.

What is the suspicion for? It arises in his own mind, not from the situation. Mind, of course, is capable of suspecting anyone based on its OWN past upbringing. J. Krishnamurthy describes it as one who is guilty of his own disposition.

The native heroism of the Indian mind, as we daily witness in the family, has risen to noble heights of unsuspecting trust of an absolute nature. Thiruvalluvar calls such friendship precious. Going further, the Poet says that day when such friends do violence to our trust is a red letter day, a day when the friendship matures from intimacy to magnanimity.

The physical body is possessive. Such people receiving an object for inspection find it difficult to return the object. What they physically touch is their own by right, is their sensation! The mind is non-possessive. It gladly gives its ideas to others. In giving, it grows. The Spirit can only give, is incapable of taking anything back, as a fountain can only issue water and cannot receive it in return.